To all those people who like to say things like “why don’t we have bloom in one playlist, and no bloom in another so that we can satisfy all” or “we should have armour abilities as custom game options… and maybe in one playlist” and so forth. Well, if you think more ‘freedom’ is the way to go I’d like you to read this article.
This sentence really struck home:
> Bad designers will often force players to use mechanics in order to justify their existence, but this robs the developer of its resources and the player of his fun.
This is exactly what Bungie did with Reach when they incorporated bloom and armour abilities into the game. The same can be said with Halo 3 and its “equipment” to an extent.
Why do armour abilities exist? Their sole purpose is to give players more options, or ‘freedom’; they’re being forced onto the player in order to justify their existence. The same can be said with bloom. It’s not good. Not good at all.
Halo CE and Halo 2 are infinitely better than both Reach and Halo 3 combined. Truest me.
> For a mechanic to be completely successful, a game should fully exhaust its possibilities for fun. Players feel clever when they learn to use one mechanic for multiple purposes. They get a better handle on the game system, and gain a better appreciation for its consistency. They’ll feel satisfied only when they’ve exhausted several well-designed mechanics. The full development of mechanics should more resemble the development of storylines in narrative works.
Well, I agree with the article, but with the context of both it and your post, it sort of sounds like you’re suggesting that there’s too many things to use. I’d have to disagree.
Things like armour abilities have been around in Halo for a couple of games now, and while it felt a bit superfluous in Halo 3’s multiplayer, it’s really been hammered into Reach, to the point where these have been considered core concepts. I’m fairly sure there’s only three core concepts in Reach’s multiplayer (but I could be wrong), shooting people, vehicles and armour abilities. And it’s already gotten to the point where people are mastering these abilities and using them in ways that Bungie didn’t forsee (ie using Armour Lock in situations where heavy weaponry and vehicles aren’t involved). Not to mention that the new Anniversary maps have been designed with these abilities heavily in mind. That tells me that these abilities are considered very important.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t feel like Reach isn’t making the most of what it has to offer. And if you’re a guy who likes Quake, with the core concept of shooting people, that’s okay. If I’ve missed your point, lemme know.
> Well, I agree with the article, but with the context of both it and your post, it sort of sounds like you’re suggesting that there’s too many things to use. I’d have to disagree.
>
> Things like armour abilities have been around in Halo for a couple of games now, and while it felt a bit superfluous in Halo 3’s multiplayer, it’s really been hammered into Reach, to the point where these have been considered core concepts. I’m fairly sure there’s only three core concepts in Reach’s multiplayer (but I could be wrong), shooting people, vehicles and armour abilities. And it’s already gotten to the point where people are mastering these abilities and using them in ways that Bungie didn’t forsee (ie using Armour Lock in situations where heavy weaponry and vehicles aren’t involved). Not to mention that the new Anniversary maps have been designed with these abilities heavily in mind. That tells me that these abilities are considered very important.
>
> I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t feel like Reach isn’t making the most of what it has to offer. And if you’re a guy who likes Quake, with the core concept of shooting people, that’s okay. If I’ve missed your point, lemme know.
> Well, I agree with the article, but with the context of both it and your post, it sort of sounds like you’re suggesting that there’s too many things to use. I’d have to disagree.
I’m not saying that. I’m saying the mechanics Reach introduced (and equipment in Halo 3) are bad because they’re only there to give players more options; Bungie are forcing players to use them in order to justify their existence.
Halo was a silky smooth multiplayer experience before the introduction of armour abilities, bloom and equipment. None of those mechanics compliment Halo’s gameplay. They’re just there for the sake of being there. For the sake of ‘shaking things’ up. That’s my problem with them.
I don’t care if they add more, keep it the same, or take some out. I play it for fun not for the competitive edge. If I want to run around a map flying in the air with a jet pack so be it.
People don’t realize that Halo simplified the FPS for it’s time and was the prime innovator for the games we see today.
Every Halo game after CE added stuff that simply was not needed and detracted from the overall experience. Reach was the worst perpetrator of this because it had no regard for anything else and came off as the biggest gimmick.
> Well, I agree with the article, but with the context of both it and your post, it sort of sounds like you’re suggesting that there’s too many things to use. I’d have to disagree.
>
> Things like armour abilities have been around in Halo for a couple of games now, and while it felt a bit superfluous in Halo 3’s multiplayer, it’s really been hammered into Reach, to the point where these have been considered core concepts. I’m fairly sure there’s only three core concepts in Reach’s multiplayer (but I could be wrong), shooting people, vehicles and armour abilities. And it’s already gotten to the point where people are mastering these abilities and using them in ways that Bungie didn’t forsee (ie using Armour Lock in situations where heavy weaponry and vehicles aren’t involved). Not to mention that the new Anniversary maps have been designed with these abilities heavily in mind. That tells me that these abilities are considered very important.
>
> I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t feel like Reach isn’t making the most of what it has to offer. And if you’re a guy who likes Quake, with the core concept of shooting people, that’s okay. If I’ve missed your point, lemme know.
And I’d have to agree with the OP and disagree with you. Armor abilities are an integral part of Reach gameplay, but only for the reason that Bungie forced them there. You can change some statistics like movement and remove armor abilities and you get a game that plays as well and even smoother than the default gameplay.
What comes to the usage of armor abilities, as the article mentioned about mechanics overlapping eachother, that’s exactly what armor abilities do. Take Armor Lock for instance. As you can block the effect of grenades and other explosives, you don’t need the awareness and strafing skill as much anymore. Jetpack is an even better example, it gives the player the ability to fly to higher levels and over long gaps, thus removing the importance of trick jumping, an integral part of Halo gameplay.
What comes to Anniversay maps being designed to support armor abilities, it’s not because they’re so important for gameplay. It’s because the maps need to be better compatible with default gameplay. Of course the developers want to fully utilize a mechanic that exists in the game, a whole different thing is, is the mechanic actually needed in the game.
> > [thus removing the importance of trick jumping, an integral part of Halo gameplay.
>
> How was trick jumping essential? I never found myself in a situation where it was needed.
If you started with Halo 3 you wouldn’t have noticed its importance. Halo 2 was where it really shined, though there were many trick jumps in CE’s maps too. H3… well, I don’t think there was any trick jump you needed to master to do well on a certain map. Guardian had a few, but…
> > > [thus removing the importance of trick jumping, an integral part of Halo gameplay.
> >
> > How was trick jumping essential? I never found myself in a situation where it was needed.
>
> If you started with Halo 3 you wouldn’t have noticed its importance. Halo 2 was where it really shined, though there were many trick jumps in CE’s maps too. H3… well, I don’t think there was any trick jump you needed to master to do well on a certain map. Guardian had a few, but…
I started with CE and never, in the ten years I’ve been playing, found that it was needed. Maybe that’s just purely circumstantial but if someone asked me what the integral gameplay elements of Halo were, trick jumping wouldn’t come to mind.
> > > > [thus removing the importance of trick jumping, an integral part of Halo gameplay.
> > >
> > > How was trick jumping essential? I never found myself in a situation where it was needed.
> >
> > If you started with Halo 3 you wouldn’t have noticed its importance. Halo 2 was where it really shined, though there were many trick jumps in CE’s maps too. H3… well, I don’t think there was any trick jump you needed to master to do well on a certain map. Guardian had a few, but…
>
> I started with CE and never, in the ten years I’ve been playing, found that it was needed. Maybe that’s just purely circumstantial but if someone asked me what the integral gameplay elements of Halo were, trick jumping wouldn’t come to mind.
Yea, well I doubt you would’ve considering you rarely played online and unless you did some serious LANing…
Lockout. A map where trick jumps are key to success.
> I still think a fixed and upgraded Equipment system would suit Halo4 nicely.
How could you fix it? there’s really nothing broken about them they just interrupt the flow of game play.
> I don’t care if they add more, keep it the same, or take some out. I play it for fun not for the competitive edge. If I want to run around a map flying in the air with a jet pack so be it.
You’re doing it at the expense of everyone who wants to play even some what seriously.
> > I still think a fixed and upgraded Equipment system would suit Halo4 nicely.
>
> How could you fix it? there’s really nothing broken about them they just interrupt the flow of game play.
Then upgrade it. I loved the equipment system, it brought a new spice/element of skill to the game. Halo3 was my favorite Halo because of great gameplay and equipment. With every different peace of equipment a whole new list of possibilities can come in to play, some can even temporarily add or take away parts of the map, some effect the player directly and others can help the whole team. Best part was that you could use them at any time, make a strategy and use instinct, skill and sometimes timing to execute it.
The equipment system was still really basic to, I’m sure they could upgrade it for Halo4. Going back to the very simple roots just doesn’t seem right. Like giving up on trying to make the game better so you back-step and just keep every game the same way(what is this COD?(jk)), Halo needs to evolve(not referring to what reach did, reach failed) not just give up and go back to what the series used to be and just stay there. One of the reasons I love Halo is because every game new things come, why end the tradition, back-step and settle?? That’s not how you advance in to something better.